Facebook has teamed up with law enforcement agencies to begin
posting AMBER alerts to its users in the event of a child
abduction in their areas. The alerts have previously been
available on the Facebook pages of individual agencies, but now
users will be able to see all the AMBER alerts in their
state.

AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency
Response. The system began as an agreement between law
enforcement and broadcasters and was designed to quickly
release information about child abductions to the public so
citizens can assist authorities in the search.

It was named for a nine year-old Arlington, Texas girl, Amber
Hagerman, who was kidnapped and subsequently murdered in
1996. The announcement that Facebook will make the alerts
more readily available comes the day before the 15th
anniversary of Amber's kidnapping.

The AMBER alert system will not be automatic. Facebook
staff wanted to be sensitive to users that would see the alerts
as spam, so users interested in getting the alerts are asked to
sign up to receive them. Once they receive an alert,
users will be able to easily share it among their Facebook
friends.

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